5 things that the Australian Breastfeeding Association do really well.

2. Base their entire organisation on the principle of mother-to-mother support for breastfeeding mothers and families. Peer support rocks.

3. Run a national breastfeeding helpline that is operational 24 hours a day (please, just urgent business overnight), seven days a week, that is staffed by trained, VOLUNTEER breastfeeding counsellors, all of whom have breastfed themselves (and might be breastfeeding when you ring … that’s street cred).

4. There are 230 local ABA groups chugging away all over Australia. Their group leaders plan meetings and walks in the park and provide a local contact for breastfeeding help and support. They’re a bit like a low-stress mothers group, and sometimes they even talk about breastfeeding.

5. Local and regional groups all over Australia run Breastfeeding Education Classes for pregnant women and their partners (women who have difficulty in the past with breastfeeding also come). The classes cover the usual information and give participants a realistic idea of what life might be like breastfeeding a new baby. The jewel in this crown is that most classes will have real-life mamas breastfeeding their real-life babies (for demonstration purposes) as a part of the class. Now that’s a very useful version of “here’s one we prepared earlier”.